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In a codex at the Corsini Library in Rome (nos. 167 & 179), among the various documents relating to the Fountain of the Moor written and signed by Bernini, there is one that is undated and unsigned but which, from the handwriting, is absolutely certain to have been written by Bernini as well. It states, "The marble to make the group of two Tritons and four fishes on the fountain will cost about 200 scudi. For carving the group, the sculptor will accept three hundred scudi, since nothing else can be done, sc. 300. Transporting the marble, and the said group once finished, will cost sc. 40: [total] sc. 540". Since it cannot be possible that such a document (which is purely and simply an exact cost estimate) is there by accident, which project might Bernini have had in mind?
The royal library at Windsor has a beautiful watercolor by Bernini showing two Tritons holding up four fishes, i.e. four dolphins. I don’t think there can be any doubt at all that the words quoted from the above document, however few, relate specifically to the arrangement portrayed in that fountain design. There is, by the way, an almost identical copy in the Library of Archaeology and Art History, Rome, very probably by someone in Bernini’s own workshop. Moreover, there is evidence in the form of another magnificent and absolutely identical sketch of the fountains by Bernini (now kept in Berlin) that the estimate and design in question were plans for a real fountain. It can be said in conclusion that, having removed the poor "snail" from its place and to satisfy the wishes of Innocent X, Gian Lorenzo imagined a more extensive arrangement, something more in the Bernini style; so he designed two powerful Tritons, half-seated, tails entwined, and making energetic efforts to hold up four dolphins with their tails twisted together in the air.
How did this excellent design also fail to please the Pope? ... who did not wish the fountain to be constructed? Perhaps Innocent considered it inappropriate to have another two half-seated figures in the middle of the fountain, especially since they would have made the fountain seem overcrowded with Tritons and in any case were too similar to the four della Porta statues at the sides. That might be one reason.
The mode of the Fountain of the Moor is approved. To my mind, however, the determining factor can be read between the lines of Innocent’s handwritten document dated 2 May 1653. Here, after conceding that this time he was at last pleased with the model of the fountain(so it could have been none other that the present "Fountain of the Moor"), he ordered the Papal Treasurer to make 500 scudi available for work on the fountain: "Judging that for satisfactory ornamentation of the old fountain in Piazza Navona located beside the church of S. Giacomo de’ Spagnoli restored upon our instructions last year [1652], some other figure must be put in its center instead of that Snail which had been placed there, [such figure] by its height and girth to more nobly fit the surroundings and, as Master Bernino has upon our order made such a model of the fountain We order…".
The pope, therefore, demanded a statue that would look distinguished and stand out in the fountain among "the surrounding Tritons", thanks to its height and girth. Now, given that della Porta’s Tritons were (and are), even half-seated, 1.57m high, it seems only too clear that to make his "two Tritons and four fishes" stand out properly in contrast to the fountain Bernini would have had to create a collection of marble figures of gigantic proportions, especially since his Tritons are also in a half-seated position. But this would have been out of keeping with the size of the fountain. So, in my opinion, this is the real reason why that magnificent fountain never got beyond the model stage. However, as we have seen, at least two of these figures were certainly made between June 1652 (when the "Snail" was removed) and May 1653, when the pope finally accepted the new model of the fountain, i.e. the Moor.
Let’s take a look now at this powerful statue. Made of marble and larger than life-size, it was sculpted between 1653 and December the following year by Giovanni Antonio Mari in Bernini’s own house; having designed it and made the model of the fountain, he obviously wanted to keep a close eye on the fountain. The cost was 300 scudi. A muscular "Triton" (as Bernini himself called it) stands on a shell, struggling with all his might to hold on to a dolphin that is trying to escape between his legs. The arrangement is both energetic and novel for Bernini and works well: the great silvery grey colossus has every muscle tensed in the effort to hang on to the dolphin’s tail and get a grip on its scales; meanwhile, the dolphin is suffocating, eyes popping out of their sockets, as it tries to wriggle free.
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